Chapter 46 - Mizuko ShirogetsuHollow Night With the back entrance to the shopping complex firmly shut, I gave Liu my full attention.

  He was sat still, and the bck mass underneath him that had been supporting his weight twitched with agony.

  The st I’d heard of him, he’d gotten into a scuffle with Kurogane, of all people. Of course, I hadn’t forgotten the absolute state of him the night before, trapped inside that strange golden obelisk, and the…hysterics that followed afterward.

  I would have expected him to be upset, but this was far beyond anything I could’ve justified. Just what had he done to that Noise?

  “What’s the meaning of this, Katoru?” I inquired evenly.

  He rose slowly to his feet, never breaking eye contact.

  “Aren’t you aware that Cunningham’s being hunted? This is no time for – “

  I was cut off by an ear-piercing screech. Liu had pced a hand on the dark shape underneath him - I could recognize now that it was some kind of panther-like creature – and it was writhing with pure agony.

  Soon enough, its entire body was engulfed in bck fme. Katoru looked back at me.

  “Catch.”

  He gave me no time to decipher the meaning of such an imperative, for before I knew it, Liu had picked up the burning creature and tossed its charring remains toward me. I raised my naginata’s tip skyward as it sailed toward me, my left hand gripping towards the bottom of the pole, and my right hand cmped around the top of the handle like a vice.

  With one fell swoop, I brought the weapon down, the icicles from my polearm’s bde bursting from the point of impact. The two halves of the beast’s carcass dropped either side of me, still and lifeless.

  I gazed forward to find Katoru still standing where he had been previously, a distinctly unimpressed expression looming across his haggard face.

  “I’ll ask again,” I threatened. “Why are you distracting us, Katoru?”

  He was suddenly having trouble maintaining eye contact. Jarring, considering he’d been the one to start this mess. I had no time for immature stunts like this – I was needed elsewhere.

  I was about to tell him as much when, almost imperceptibly, his lips moved.

  “I’m going to fix it.”

  …What? I sighed.

  “I don’t have time for this.” I admitted, walking toward the door that Junko and Arthur had rushed through. When Liu wanted to function like an actual human being, maybe I’d acknowledge his existence.

  I shifted my thoughts toward our actual adversaries, the ‘group of Noise’ Juno had stated were after the Cunningham, as I lowered my weapon and headed toward the door. It was very likely that the sniper from earlier wouldn’t be the st of our problems tonight.

  Speaking of, the shots from said Noise had ceased completely; meaning it not only had no interest in either myself or Katoru, but it had likely moved to a new spot to survey its targets from. Would it be regrouping with its allies? If so, I needed to hurry. There was no guarantee that Shibu Department Store was completely safe, even if it was a sanctuary comparative to the rest of the Hollow Night.

  I was reaching for the doorknob when some kind of projectile smmed into the wooden door, causing it to erupt into fme. I span around to find Liu doubling over and holding his head in his hands, and much closer to me than I was comfortable with.

  “You dOn’t…walk aWAy from me…” I heard him mutter in a voice I didn’t recognize, now dropping to his knees and clutching his hair with such ferocity I expected it to come off. “…when I’m talking tO YOU.”

  Ignoring the slight shaking in my right hand, I stepped back several feet, seeking to create some distance. If Liu refused to stop distracting us, then he only had himself to bme for what happened next.

  I had no mercy left to spare him.

  “You’ve deyed me long enough, Katoru.”

  I frosted the tip of my naginata and held it in position. It was truly a shame. Katoru and his alter-ego had made for mighty allies indeed.

  “Farewell – and good riddance to that partner of yours. I look forward to his absence.”

  My heart started to race. I took a deep breath, and steeled my resolve, but my arms refused to move. Annoyed by their cowardice, I thought of Mother, and her st words to me on that fateful day at Molco.

  That gave me all the courage I needed.

  Closing my eyes, I thrust my naginata forward, and felt the delectable, horrifyingly satisfying sensation of a bde sinking into flesh.

  Had I done it? Had I really done it?

  Ending the life of another human being is a line that, once crossed, you can never return from. You will have to carry the weight of that sin as a burden for the rest of your life.

  Every night, before I inevitably closed my eyes and descended into this tenebrous warzone, I found myself repeating those same questions over and over again.

  Are you prepared to kill? To murder? To end the life of another for the sake of your own?

  My answer would often change depending on circumstance. But tonight, I didn’t have the luxury of lip service and introspection. All I had avaible was action, and it seemed that through this action alone, I had discovered who I truly was.

  It was equal parts liberating and frightening.

  My eyes slowly opened, unravelling and picking apart the scene before me. Liu was deathly still, my naginata remaining upright and sticking out of his left shoulder even after I had let go of its pole.

  I wouldn’t stop shaking.

  “K-Katoru…?”

  I was, ashamedly, so distraught that I hadn’t noticed my naginata slowly rising out of his body, until it had fallen completely onto the ground with a cnk. Immediately, my heart had began to pound like a drum. I was making a desperate grab for my naginata when I saw it.

  A massive, hulking bck arm had arisen out of the spot where I’d stabbed Liu, and was gripping onto the bde. Stopping in my tracks, I watched as the hand squeezed the metal bde until it had been crushed and folded into itself like a discarded can of soda.

  By the time I’d returned to my senses, Katoru was on his feet, rivers of red running down his left arm. Despite the shadow his hair was casting over his eyes, I knew he was looking right at me.

  Like a rabbit picking up on the low growl of a starving coyote, I scrambled to my feet as my survival instinct took over. I didn’t look back. Pacing now, I heard a shout behind me, but didn’t look back, not even as I heard the rapid pounding of footsteps that weren’t my own.

  In the distance, where I had originally been stood, a singur white glow emanated from the ground. Instantly, my heart overflowed with joy. Realizing that this was perhaps my only chance at making it out of this nightmare alive, I poured all of my strength into my legs, the wind rushing against me even more violently as I sped.

  I was only a few paces away from the orb that the panther Noise had dropped when a scorching heat had suddenly engulfed my right leg, tossing me off bance. The world was spinning as I felt my body bounce across the asphalt, each thud more violent than the st.

  When I’d finally suspended movement, the sphere taunted me with its seductive glow a few yards ahead, just out of reach. I couldn’t hold back my screams of agony as my right leg had been enveloped with dark hellfire.

  Gritting my teeth, I reached back with my right arm, resting it on the top of my thigh. A thick, frigid ice was beginning to spread down, painfully but surely covering the ferocious fmes. As I did so, I raised my left elbow, before smming it down hard on the ground to drag the rest of my heavy body forward.

  If I could just get to the sphere and consume it – if I could just get more power-

  By the time I’d gotten close enough to touch it with my fingertips, my hand was pummelled into the ground with a fierce stomp. I cried with both pain and disappointment as Liu looked down at me.

  For the first time since my attempt at his life, I met his eyes, and instantly regretted doing so. While still coloured a piercing yellow, there were wisps of bck smoke emanating from his irises like an open fme.

  In that moment, I realized that Katoru’s body was literally burning out with hatred.

  “nO more RuNNING.” He garbled as his head twitched. “…gIvE mE yoUR...YOUR….”

  Liu’s right hand had spread out, and was reaching toward me, practically dripping with shadowy vitriol. I struggled and struggled, summoning my other hand to beat and pound away at his foot, but to no avail.

  Sensing a searing heat begin to approach my face, the despair became too great for me to fight any longer. I had lost.

  I id there, like a deer in headlights, waiting for my painful annihition to come. In just a moment’s time, there would be nothing left of me but ashes.

  All that was left was to close my eyes, and pray that my sister would not suffer the same fate.

  After a few moments, the heat had reached a standstill, refusing to increase any further. Hesitantly, I opened my eyes, and involuntarily widened them at the scene I had come to witness.

  Liu’s hand was shaking, struggling, as if being held back by something. Gripping his forearm tightly was the same mighty bck limb that had crushed my naginata, only this time, it was holding Liu back?

  “S-STOP!” Katoru groaned, equal parts confused and frustrated. “WhY woN’t YoU leT ME GO?!”

  To my absolute shock, a head covered in messy white hair and glowering white eyes sprouted out of Liu’s wound. The rivulets of blood flowing down his arm had turned pitch bck. I gasped, refusing to believe what I was seeing.

  “NO!” The Tainted cried, struggling to contain its master. “Once you cross this line, there’s no turning back! This isn’t what he wanted, you shithead!

  He? There was too much happening at once, but there was one thing I was clear on. For whatever reason, the Tainted was at odds with its lord, and was protecting me.

  I’d been given a second chance. That was all I needed to know.

  Most of my EXS had been used to temper the fire ravaging my leg, but with the st of my reserves, I formed a small but lethally sharp shard, ramming it straight into Katoru’s calf.

  Both he and the Tainted shrieked in pain, stumbling backwards into the wall. My hand was free! With one final, desperate surge of energy, I dived over the white orb and held it close as its power washed over me and bathed me in a deep white luminescence.

  My despair, my pain, and my fear – I felt them all begin to wash away as the world was enveloped in white.

  When the light faded, I felt renewed. The pain in my right leg was gone, my EXS restored, and instantly I knew I’d gained some kind of strength that was begging to be unleashed.

  Taking deep breaths, I slowly rose to my feet, the trepidation from earlier a distant memory. I turned to find Liu being physically contained and held back by his own servant, who had now fully materialized, arms wrapped around Liu’s body like a coiled snake.

  The Tainted’s head suddenly snapped in my direction.

  “GO, GET OUTTA HERE!” It screamed, its voice straining. “I-I don’t know how much longer I can – “

  Its sentence was cut off by its own shouts and screams.

  “EnOuGh! YOU BELONG TO ME!” Liu slurred. “TO ME!!”

  The Tainted’s body was then violently dashed to the floor, before being absorbed into Liu’s, dragging across the ground and screaming until nothing remained.

  Silence.

  Then, Liu’s eyes slowly turned toward me, his gaze piercing and pointed. Two grotesque arms of The Tainted emerged from either side of his back, giving him a monstrous, four-armed appearance. He met my eyes with a perilous edge in his voice, his tone dripping with malice.

  "No mOrE... rUnNIng."

  A few moments ago, such a decration would have sent a spark of terror into my very soul. But the situation was different now. I could feel a newfound strength surging through me, awakening something that had long been dormant.

  Concentrating, I clenched and opened my fists repeatedly until I felt a subtle click, a connection to an untapped well of power.

  Slowly, a frosty, double-edged longsword materialized in my right hand, its bde shimmering with an icy aura. In my left hand, a broad, crested shield of the same material formed, solid and unyielding – just as I had visualized.

  This was only scratching the surface of what I was truly capable of. I could feel it, a burgeoning part of me stirring to life, ready to be unleashed.

  “Interesting,” I smiled, admiring my creations before locking eyes with my foe. My heart pounded with a mix of anticipation and adrenaline, each beat echoing in my ears like a war drum.

  “I was just about to say the same thing.”

  The air around us crackled with tension, the oppressive weight of the imminent csh pressing down on everything like a storm about to break.

  Liu's eyes flickered with a sinister glee, his monstrous form towering over me, yet I stood my ground, the frosty glow of my weapons illuminating the darkened space.

  In that charged silence, time seemed to stretch, and each heartbeat felt like an eternity.

  The world around us faded into insignificance as we focused solely on each other, two titans about to collide.